Problem of Immigrant’s Employment Discussed by Council Conference

“No English-No Job,” is the policy adopted by many manufacturers, said Robert C. Deming, Director, Division of Adult Education, Connecticut State Board of Education, at the Adult Immigrant Education Conference held under the auspices of the National Council of Jewish Women at the Hotel Astor in New York. “Employers engaging foreign-born men in their industries insist that the men know English,” said Mr. Deming, “and one important manufacturer threatened to move his industry to another city unless the Board of Education supplied teachers and classes for their foreign-born employees.”

At the third Regional Conference on adult alien education conducted in New York City by the Department of Immigrant Aid of the National Council of Jewish Women, representatives from twenty-eight cities in the States of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland attended. The session was addressed by specialists in the field of adult education and naturalization.

“In the last four years, through the efforts of Councils of Jewish Women in many cities of the United States,” stated Mrs. Maurice Goldman, National Chairman of the Department, in opening the Conference, “the number of foreign-born women enrolled in the local classes formed by the National Council of Jewish Women, increased from 5,000 to 12,000 students. These classes are conducted in cooperation with Boards of Education throughout the country.”

Other speakers who addressed the delegates were Henry C. Fruchter, Director of the Naturalization Aid League, New York City; Miss Rose Gibian. New York Section, National Council of Jewish Women; Miss Sarah Elkus. Director, Day Classes, Board of Education, New York City; Mrs. Theresa Malkiel, Organizer for the Brooklyn Section of the National Council of Jewish Women; Cecilia Razovsky, Secretary, Department of Immigrant Aid, New York City; Mrs. Jules Hart, President, New York State Conference, and Mrs. H. B. Levine, past President, N. J. State Conference.

Four thousand women are enrolled in the classes conducted under the auspices of the Brooklyn Section of the National Council of Jewish Women. A similar number attend classes conducted under the auspices of this organization in New York City.

That the increase in the fee for naturalization should be brought to the attention of all aliens, was urged by Mr. Fruchter, who stated that the present fee of $1.00 for securing first papers will be increased to $5.00 after July 1, 1929.

At the afternoon session presided over by Miss Florina Lasker, Vice-Chairman of the Department of Immigrant Aid, plans were made to expand the work of organizing English classes.